1909] on Influence of Siiperstition on Groirth of laditutions. 453 



the king possesses a personal influence over the works of nature, such 

 as the growth of the crops and the bearing of fruit-trees. 



Similarly in Africa kings are commonly supposed to be endowed 

 with a magical power of making the rain to fall and the crops to 

 grow. In times of drought and dearth they are entreated bj their 

 subjects to exert their supernatural powers for the good of the 

 country ; and if no rain falls and vegetation perishes, the king is 

 hable to be deposed or put to death. This widespread African supei'- 

 stition culminated long ago in ancient Egypt, where the kings were 

 treated as gods both in life and in death, temples being dedicated to 

 their worship and priests appointed to conduct it. And when the 

 harvests failed the ancient Egyptians, like the modern negroes, laid 

 the blame of the failure on the reigning monarch. 



Nor have such superstitions been confined to savages and other 

 peoples of alien race in remote parts of the world. They seem to 

 have been shared b}' the ancestors of all the Aryan peoples from India 

 to Ireland. Thus an ancient Indian law-book tells us that " even an 

 infant king must not be despised from an idea that he is a mere 

 mortal ; for he is a great deity in human form." Similarly in 

 Homeric Greece kings were called sacred and divine, and it was 

 thought that the reign of a good king caused the earth to bring forth 

 wheat and barley, the trees to be loaded with fruit, the flocks to 

 multiply, and the sea to yield fish. In ancient Ireland it was also 

 believed that when kings observed the customs of their ancestors, 

 the seasons were mild, the crops plentiful, the cattle fruitful, the 

 waters abounded with fish, and the fruit-trees had to be propped up 

 on account of the weight of their produce. 



Perhaps the last relic of such superstitions which lingered 

 about our English kings was the belief that they could heal 

 scrofula by their touch. The diseavse was accordingly known as 

 the king's evil. The superstition survived into the eighteenth 

 century. In his childhood Dr. Johnson was touched for scrofula by 

 Queen Anne. 



The foregoing evidence, summary as it is, may stiflice to show 

 that many peoples have regarded their rulers, and especially their 

 kings, with superstitious awe as beings of a higher order and endowed 

 with mightier powers than common folk. Imbued with such a pro- 

 found veneration for their governors, and with such an exaggerated 

 conception of their power, they cannot but have yielded them a 

 prompter and more implicit obedience than if they had known them 

 to be men just like themselves. If that is so, I may claim to have 

 proved my first proposition, which is, that among certain races and 

 at certain times superstition has strengthened the respect for govern- 

 ment, especially monarchical government, and has thereby contributed 

 to the establishment and maintenance of civil order. 



II. I now pass to my second proposition, which is, that among 

 certain races and at certain times superstition has strengthened the 



